A/N: So…definitely gonna be longer than 35 chapters…I'm not even going to anticipate the end…Thank you for continuing on this journey! Enjoy! Also, I have a hard time responding to comments on FFN, but I definitely appreciate them. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review! It really makes my day!
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Chapter 34: The Chunin Exams, Part One
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Kakashi
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The four Konoha rookie teams passed the first round of the Chunin Exam. Their results were posted to the scoreboard outside — group and individual rankings. While the objective was to observe and steal the answers, it was possible to actually know the answers. And Sakura Haruno had the top score — a higher score than anyone else — which meant she hadn't cheated, but actually reasoned out the answers. That had only been done twice before — Minato Namikaze and Itachi Uchiha.
Kakashi felt inexplicably proud of his little kunoichi. Though, in his heart of hearts, he knew he had no hand in her success, but he was glad regardless. The kids were sent immediately to the Forest of Death. He knew his little genin would do well together — their teamwork was flawless. The idea of his own promotion to chunin at the age of six was now such a strange concept. And he'd done it with a team he wasn't even close with, yet his genin were the absolute best of friends.
"That's a rather high score," a deep, bored voice said at his side. Kakashi looked over to see cunning amber eyes, blood red hair and the rigid posture of none other than Sasori no Asuna, the most infamous Jonin of the Sand. The reason Kakashi knew him, his father had assassinated Sasori's parents long ago. It was one of the White Fang's last successful missions. Those amber eyes looked up into Kakashi's gaze. "She belongs to you? Sakura?"
Kakashi knew he meant as a student — as in Kakashi was their Jonin team leader. Instead, he felt his jaw clench and the muscle in his left scarred cheek spasmed. "Yeah, she's mine," Kakashi answered.
Sasori narrowed his eyes and a brief flash of emotion passed over his otherwise impassive face. "Something feels off about these games," Sasori said. "Keep your eyes open, Hatake."
"Do you…know who I am?" Kakashi asked quietly.
The puppet master was silent, appraising Kakashi with a critical eye. "I know, you are not your father," Sasori answered at last. "Captain Uchiha — Shisui— and I are on patrol together. He said to remind you to stay vigilant."
Kakashi shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jonin blue pants, his posture slouched. He may have looked lazy to the casual observer, but it was a stance that allowed him to fluidly engage in battle. "I always do."
Sasori nodded faintly and then ambled away, disappearing amongst the other jonin leaders and then vanishing.
Another one of those nagging sensations of deja nu that kept reoccurring bothered Kakashi as watched the Sand shinobi leave. This couldn't have been their first meeting, but it felt like he was more familiar with Sasori than what a perusal of the Bingo Book might have granted him.
"Will you look at that?" Asuma said, patting his hand over Kakashi's back. A cigarette was clenched between the Third's son's teeth. "Our kiddos have passed the first round. You want to place bets on which of our teams makes it through the forest first?"
"No," Kakashi answered. He already knew the experiences of his team and Asuma's team would be completely different in the Forest of Death. People would be gunning for his team — either because he was their sensei or because the prince of the Uchiha clan was their captain. He knew people didn't know Naruto's true parentage, or else he'd have been a target as well. And people always underestimated kunoichi— though in this case, while Sakura's analytical skills were top notch, her fighting prowess still left a lot to be desired
"Why? Worried your team will lose?" Asuma teased. "Can't compete with the renown Ino-Shika-Cho?"
Kakashi said nothing. Part of him wanted to retort that one day, his team would be capable of saving the world. He wasn't sure where that confidence came from, but he believed it with all his heart.
"My rival!" Guy shouted, running towards Kakashi with a luminescent smile. Kurenai also showed up, looping her arm through Asuma's and dragging him away.
"Yo," Kakashi greeted, grateful his mask hid his grimace from Guy's enthusiasm.
"The beloved youth of our teams will soon face off!" Guy cried. "I suspect both teams will finish the second round within three days! I hope my Tenten faces your Sakura in the third round! That would be quite the match!"
Kakashi was surprised he mentioned the kunoichi and not the boys. "You're not interested in watching Hyuga versus Uchiha? Or Lee against Naruto?"
Guy's smile grew wider and he latched onto Kakashi's shoulder. "Do you think that would happen? If our genin all faced off against each other it would be a true testament of our rivalry!" He dragged Kakashi away from the scoreboard. "Though, odds are for our kunoichi to face off. The proctors always have girls vs girls whenever possible."
"Ah," Kakashi murmured. He hadn't realized that, but it made sense. The third round was really just a showing off for the daimyo and other foreign nations that participated. Though, really only Konoha and Sand and a few smaller shinobi villages had been invited.
Guy leaned closer, a sparkle of conspiracy in his eyes. "Though, we both know our youthful teams will finish their trek through the Forest of Death much sooner than Asuma's lazy team."
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Shisui
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It wasn't awkward sharing a drink with Sasori no Asuna. Or at least, not completely awkward. He was one of the those involved with the time-traveling Sakura a few years back whom didn't have his memory wiped. And he'd written to Shisui around the time when Sakura had graduated from the Academy — how the man knew of such a thing was still mind-boggling. Sasori kept up with Sakura, having credited her with saving him from turning down a dark path after he lost his mentor.
When Shisui had given him a bull-shite story to throw him off track of realizing that a younger version of Sakura lived in the village, the man wasn't fooled. Sasori insisted on meeting her. So Shisui had invited him as his guest to the Uchiha family dinner celebration for the kiddos Academy graduation. He'd not expected Sasori to extend an invitation to Sakura immediately. However, the Puppet Master had perfect chakra control and could probably recognize the young girl's familiar, unmasked chakra signature.
"So, you're here as part of the Kazekage's guard?" Shisui gestured towards some of the other Sand Shinobi mingling inside the bar.
"Honestly, I do not care for Rasa. Compared to Lord Third, he's a pale shadow," Sasori confessed. "My cousin Lyna is a Jonin instructor to a trio of genin. She asked me to come along as part of the delegation. And frankly, my gut told me to be wary. Something seems foul within Sand," Sasori explained.
"So it had nothing to do with a certain pink-haired kunoichi on my cousin's team?" Shisui pressed.
A slight smile graced Sasori's thin lips. "Perhaps, I was a little curious."
Shisui scanned the crowd within the bar. "Is your cousin here?"
"She's the redhead with a swarm of Konoha jonin offering to buy her drinks." Sasori wrapped a pair of chakra strings on either side of Shisui's face and directed him to see the far corner of the bar where a lovely Sand kunoichi was indeed surrounded by a half dozen shinobi offering her drinks.
"Popular," Shisui murmured, using a burst of electricity to severe the chakra strings. She was pretty, but the fact that she was related to Sasori was certainly a deterrent to any sane shinobi.
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Sakura
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It was the morning of their third day within the Forest of Death. They had both the Earth and Heaven scrolls and were on their way back to the tower. They had slept in shifts with Sasuke taking the last one as usual with his superior night vision. The plan was to head out at first light, hoping to reach the tower by mid-morning and avoid any unnecessary delays. They had a few skirmishes, but nothing too difficult or time consuming.
"Wake up. We need to head out," Sasuke spoke quietly, his warm hand gently shook Sakura's shoulder.
With a tired groan, Sakura opened her eyes and met the dark onyx gaze of her teammate. She and Naruto had unanimously declared Sasuke their team leader when they first set foot in the forest. The dark-haired Uchiha had been stunned by the decision. He shouldn't have been too surprised, he was their de facto leader more often than not. Sasuke took his position of leadership with a quiet seriousness that would have rivaled that of his esteemed elder brother.
"Is Naruto awake yet?" Sakura sat up and rubbed her knuckle over her eye.
Sasuke rocked back on his haunches. "As team leader, I nominate you to wake him up."
They both looked towards their blond, hyperactive best friend. He was sprawled out on top of his sleeping bag. From experience, waking up Naruto usually meant a forced cuddle session. Sharing a room, Sasuke had learned the best way to wake up Naruto was tossing the family cat at him. Whatever scratches the feline might have inflicted upon Naruto would heal quick enough with the Nine-tails chakra.
"The more time you waste, the higher chance someone will try to get in our way on the way to the tower," Sasuke reasoned.
Sakura rolled up her bedroll and stretched as she walked over towards Naruto's sleeping pallet. She grasped his upper arm and shook gently, only to be wrapped up on a pair of strong, thin arms and dragged on top of the blond adolescent.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto murmured against her hair, holding her tight against him. "Five more minutes, okay?"
Sakura pinched him just under his ribs. "Get up! We don't have five minutes!"
"We have a problem," Sasuke hissed. He set his backpack next to Sakura and Naruto. He'd already packed away their camping supplies, sealing the bulk of their things into sealing scrolls. His eyes grew distant, as he absorbed the information his hawk summons sent him.
Sakura stiffened, feeling the chakra release of one of the traps she set up around their perimeter. "Enemy approaching, Naruto." She brought her hands together and with force applied at just the right angle, broke Naruto's hold on her. It was a self-defense move Shisui taught her while she'd still been at the Academy.
"Oh," Naruto whined, rubbing at his jaw. His eyes widened and he sniffed, the pupils in his eyes contracted into thick vertical slits. "Sasuke," he said hoarsely. He snatched Sakura's hand, squeezing it tightly as his body took up an orange glow.
"It's fine. Let him loose, I'll reign you in," Sasuke promised.
The three genin teammates stood back-to-back in a triangle, ready stances, prepared for whatever was coming towards them.
The team from Grass landed up in the lower limbs of the nearby trees. "Those traps were rather rudimentary," the one with the long black hair greeted with a sneer on his face.
A fourth shinobi landed in the trees — this one with pale skin, long hair and neck and a tongue that seemed to hand halfway down their neck. "Baby Uchiha," they hissed. "You're a tricky one to track."
"Am I supposed to know you?" Sasuke demanded.
"I can offer you power — more power than you've ever dreamed of!" They cooed.
"So much power you have to sneak into an exam meant for genin?" Sasuke countered. "What can you possibly teach me that my clan cannot?"
Naruto sniffed. "They smell wrong. Snake."
"Sakura, together," Sasuke whispered. He reached for her hand and she squeezed his fingers. Together they weaved an intense genjutsu like they'd practiced time and time again under the masters of the technique within one of the Leaf's founding clans.
Three of the four would-be attackers were caught within the powerful genjutsu. Normally, Naruto would have been caught by proximity, but with the tailed-beast's chakra flaring, he was immune to the deceptions against reality.
At this same time, Naruto launched himself at the snake, two orange chakra tails twitching eagerly as claws raked across the shinobi, revealing someone else entirely underneath the outer skin. The pale snake-like man appeared even more serpentine as their neck elongated, jaw snapping and dislocating and stretching across the expanse towards Sasuke.
Lightning quick, a figure in black with a white mask and familiar curly dark hair materialized in front of Sasuke. A sword severed the neck of the creature, for the remaining neck to retract and another head to shoot up to replace the lost one. Yellow, reptilian eyes glowed and then they vanished.
"I never did care for uninvited guests," the familiar voice of Shisui Uchiha murmured. He wiped the flat of his blade over the sleeve of his uniform, the bloody stain disappearing into the black material.
Landing next to him was a man with fiery hair and golden eyes, Sakura remembered him from the celebration years ago when she and the boys graduated the Academy. He was Shisui's friend from Suna.
The three shinobi locked within the genjutsu were quickly bundled together with chakra strings. Sasori dropped them onto the ground in an unconscious heap. A massive humanoid creature appeared, stretched impossibly wide jaws and then swallowed the three captured shinobi. "Thank you, Hiruko," he murmured.
"You kids hurry along," Shisui said, not taking his eyes off the enemy shinobi. "This crew is not part of the exam."
"We're not leaving you," Sasuke vowed.
"This is Orochimaru — a S-ranked missing Nin. Sasori and I will wrap this up," Shisui repeated. He twirled his tanto blade.
"Why the hostility?" The rogue shinobi hissed. "I only wanted to give young Sasuke a gift!" The body was left behind to collapse onto the ground while the stark white Orochimaru was suddenly sitting atop a massive purple snake.
As the purple snake summons started to strike, aiming for Sasuke it hesitated and gave the genin time to leap away. Then the snake was traveling fast through the forest, destroying trees in its wake. Shisui and Sasori traveled after it.
"What was that?" Naruto panted, watching them vanish into the distance. His face contorted into a grimace as two tails swished angrily behind him.
"Not our problem," Sasuke said hoarsely. His Sharingan was active, his tomoe spinning.
"We will trust Shisui and Sasori to take care of that threat. We need to go, get out of here before we attract more attention." Sakura grabbed hold of Sasuke's elbows and he looked down at her. "Sasuke, focus. You need to help Naruto."
With a nod, Sasuke shook off Sakura and locked Naruto into his Sharingan gaze. Moments later, the two tails of the fox spirit living within their teammate receded. Familiar blue eyes blinked back at them.
"Let's go," Sasuke ordered. They took off for the trees, moments before chakra scalpels were released in their direction. They missed the glint of glasses from the gray-haired ninja they left behind.
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Kakashi
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He was anxiously awaiting his genin when they made it to the tower at the end of the Forest of Death. Itachi stood next to him, both eager to greet Team Seven after their close encounter with none-other-than Orochimaru the Snake Sannin!
Aside from the Grass shinobi that Orochimaru's followers had killed and impersonated, there seemed to be no other casualties.
"How dare he go after my family," Itachi hissed. He rarely displayed anger, but today, his dark eyes were flickering between midnight and crimson in his agitation.
Kakashi said nothing, but he understood Itachi's anger. The Third Hokage was always oddly lenient when it came to his terrorist former student. It was a known fact that the traitor Danzo was being harbored by Orochimaru. Two mass murderers living peacefully in Sound — outside of Konoha's jurisdiction.
If Minato had been Hokage, he wouldn't have let something as asinine as politics get in the way of ridding the world of such scum. Alas, Sarutobi was no Minato.
"Finally," Itachi whispered. The three members of Team Seven were leaping into view, traversing from tree to tree. Two teams had beaten them to the tower. Many more were still in the Forest of Death. However, they'd been the only team to attract the attention of an international terrorist.
When they reached the platform, the trio practically collapsed. Itachi was there a moment later to wrap Sasuke into his arms. Sakura and Naruto had their arms around each other's shoulders and hobbled together towards Kakashi.
And without thinking about the propriety of his actions, Kakashi Hatake wrapped Naruto and Sakura up into a fierce hug, pressing their frail bodies tight against him. They were alive! And maybe he buried his face against soft pink hair and allowed himself to breath a sigh of relief.
"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto's muffled voice trembled against his chest.
"We did it," Sakura whispered, pulling back slightly and looking up at Kakashi's face. Her jade eyes were completely dry and she was smiling. "How did we do, Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi found himself mesmerized by the strength he saw in her countenance. He thought Sakura would be the trembling mess, not Naruto. "You did well. Your team finished third. If you hadn't been waylaid by an international terrorist — you'd have finished first."
Sakura smiled and the knot of worry in Kakashi's gut loosened at the sight. "You hear that Naruto? Third place!"
"Believe it, Sakura," Naruto said, a soft chuckle in his tone.
Naruto and Sakura pulled back from Kakashi and he felt oddly lost without their warmth. "I think that means you should treat us to lunch, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura suggested, looping her arm back around Naruto's waist as he sagged against her heavily.
"Can we have Ichiraku? Please?" Naruto whined, his arm around Sakura's shoulder. "Mama Mikoto never lets me eat Ramen anymore. She says it doesn't have enough nut-nutria.."
"Nutrition. You need more vegetables," Sakura admonished. She looked over her shoulder and caught Sasuke's eye.
Sasuke extracted himself from Itachi and stood on Sakura's other side. His arm fit snug around her waist. "Fine. We'll do Ramen."
"Then dango afterwards!" Sakura added.
"My treat," Itachi offered. He met Kakashi's gaze with calm, onyx eyes. "Captain Kakashi was just talking about how eager he was to hear all about your time in the forest."
Kakashi had said no such thing and was planning to skip out. He was glad his genin survived, but they came very near to mortal harm and he'd been unable to do anything for them. He felt guilt gnawing at his conscience for having signed them up to these exams. Maybe he should have waited?
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, her jade eyes implored him and he felt incapable of resistance.
"Mah, as long as Itachi is treating," Kakashi agreed.
Half an hour later, the five of them were snug inside a booth at Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto was on his fourth bowl. Sasuke was regaling them with all the details of the written exam as well as their adventure in the Forest of Death. He took his position as team captain serious and was treating their experiences like a mission report.
After another fifteen minutes, Kakashi felt Sakura start to nod off, having finished her second bowl of ramen. He raised his arm and she scooted against his side and was asleep moments later. Kakashi rested his hand over her shoulder, holding her securely against him.
Kakashi was very attached to his little genin. If something happened to any of them, he wasn't sure how he would survive. He tried to relax as Sasuke and Naruto took turns describing the battles and the traps they set up. And he tried to ignore the warm feeling in his chest as his little kunoichi slept against his side.
It was normal to feel this kind of affection for his team, right?
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